Any new houseboat products Houseboat Magazine should take a look at?

I'd like to see a comparison of waxes in the magazine.

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16x66 Sailabration on Percy Priest Lake near Nashville.

Current discussions on other threads here concerning stoves, propane vs electric, and solar... Toilet installations/problems are common, too.

Bear in mind you have two different groups of people here; the "homebuilders" like myself who built/rebuilt their own houseboat and do their own work, and the "turnkey" buyers who simply go out and buy what they want and hire the work done. Needless to say the two groups are interested in different things.

But I don't know how successful you'd be trying to sell ads to Costco and Home Depot...

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Willie
She's a tired old barge but she's paid for! http://s71.photobucket.com/alb...p;current=ef324993.pbw

Edited: 05/23/2012 at 04:04:56 AM by stmbtwle

There is a third group that is in the middle. We take 10-15 yr old houseboats with good bones and refurbish them into what we want.

Those are probably the largest group and the best "target", though I had put them in the "rebuilder" group.

What exactly IS a "houseboat product"??? On my boat everything is either "house" from Big Box, "marine" from a marine store, or "RV" from an RV supplier, depending on the application.

I'd think articles such as "Is solar for me?", "The best electric toilet", "gas vs diesel", "I/O vs outboard", "pros and cons of portable generators", etc would draw a lot of interest... but they'll take time and research, which might be expensive.

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Willie
She's a tired old barge but she's paid for! http://s71.photobucket.com/alb...p;current=ef324993.pbw

Edited: 05/23/2012 at 07:37:47 AM by stmbtwle

I agree with you Willy - the comparative articles that you mentioned would be good. However, it seems that the magazine itself is, for lack of a better term, more "fluff" than hard information. Nothing wrong with that - especially since we have the forum here.

So much of what we do is specific to our particular boats. My boat sat unused for about 3 years before I bought it. So, I had to fight all of the bad gas demons that came with that situation. I still need to rebuild or replace the carbs because the idle mixture circuits are completely plugged up - I can turn the mixture screws all in or all out with no change at all. So, rebuilding a mid 90s Mercruiser two barrel carb article would be great for me, but no one else would care.

I think if the articles were aimed at folks trying to decide what kind of boat to buy, they would draw attention on the magazine racks. When someone is, say, trying to decide whether to buy an outboard-powered catamaran vs an I/O powered monohull, it's a big, expensive decision, and of course everyone has their own preferences and isn't exactly objective. This is where a well-written magazine article could make a difference.

Especially if the articles were specific to houseboats and couldn't be found anywhere else. We're a different breed than the guy who jumps in his 800hp trailer-boat and goes sailfishing twice a year. There are dozens of fishing mags for him.

A good one to start with and with which we can all relate: "How to keep ants, roaches and spiders off the boat" (I'm still looking for that one)

As to what color laminate to put in my galley, that's a personal thing; I'll let the Admiral decide.

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Willie
She's a tired old barge but she's paid for! http://s71.photobucket.com/alb...p;current=ef324993.pbw

I read an extensive thread on another boating forum about an available product many were raving about it's called Bifen IT. It's supposed to be the cat's meow for mosquito control but in looking it's also well rated for many other pests including the ones you quoted. We actually ordered some in an attempt to address our spider problem and are going to give it a whirl.



I may be the Ginnie pig on this product but I've nothing to loose but hopefully the darn spiders.

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Respect Our Outdoor Recreational Resources
Leaving Only "Footprints in the Sand"

2003 5.3 Chevy P/U
1972 35' Crest Pontoon Houseboat
2007 90 hp. Yamaha

Edited: 05/23/2012 at 04:02:10 PM by Bamby

Does that stuff kill midges?

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1988 SkipperLiner 53x14
1995 Tracker Party Cruiser 32 *for sale*
2003 Chaparral 260 SSI
2000 Allegro Bus 40' DP

I can't ascertain for certain, heck I had to google up what a midges was or is but according to a pdf of the label it does. If you go to the link: Bifen IT Label PDF and scroll way down you'll see them listed in a paragraph Pest Control on Outside Surfaces and Around Buildings. But like I said I've no personal experience with this product as of yet but we're hoping to relieve ourselves of some of our annoyances.. fleas, ticks, ants, and mostly spiders..

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Respect Our Outdoor Recreational Resources
Leaving Only "Footprints in the Sand"

2003 5.3 Chevy P/U
1972 35' Crest Pontoon Houseboat
2007 90 hp. Yamaha

we use "ortho home defense max" and we have not had any spiders or any other rascals. rain will wash it off so you have to reapply and you can use it inside anywhere without staining or smell. it's worked great for years for us and everyone else on our dock.

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1991 gibson 44 executive
454's
norwich,ohio
docked on the good ole ohio river in marietta

I used Demand Cs for the first time this year at home and on the boat and have found it to be way better than the Ortho Home Defense or similar products at the big box stores. We have trouble with wasps etc. at home and since I sprayed earlier this spring I have only seen a couple outside where I used to see them daily. Even on the boat, I sprayed the inside of the canvass rails and under the party top. All those pesky little gnats etc are no longer a bother so far either.

Was just on the boat yesterday and didn't run into a single spider web. We'll see if it continues but so far so good.



Demand Cs--Amazon

Just bombed the boat to get rid of roaches. We will follow up with another bomb in a couple weeks. We will also be spraying year round for total pest control.

I bomb every so often and it takes care of roaches for a while. The best defense I've had against ants so far is to spray the mooring lines with roach/ant killer. In theory it keeps 'em from coming aboard.

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Willie
She's a tired old barge but she's paid for! http://s71.photobucket.com/alb...p;current=ef324993.pbw

The "C-head" arrived today-- a composting marine toilet with a few decent reviews. We shall see. It was half the price of the other two major competitors. Looks a lot more like we meant it than the 'granny pot' (sickroom commode over a 5-gallon bucket of peat.) Probably won't have enthusiastic acceptance from landlubbers who like a whooshing sound and a disappearing act, but (we think) we're fine with the concept, especially as we can wave merrily as we go right on by the pump-out station. Long after our weekend trip, the peat in the ad-hoc-head had no odor at all. This should be a bit more effortless with its automatic separating of liquid and solid. There's some cheerful thought in never having to unclog the thing or change stinky hoses, too. We hope the reality is as good as theory.

If it works as advertised, there's probably a good article on composting heads here, perhaps as part of a roundup of the latest in other options, too.

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Amelia
Edenton, NC

Well, hurry up and use your boat a lot - and eat hardy. Invite the friends and family. This could be a major mod. for a lot of boaters.
I would like a report from an actual user like yourself. If I knew for fact that they worked on a boat, I would love to get one. I just think of a composting system of being rather large.
Thanks in advance.

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Never wrecked a boat while awake or sober

Kemah, Tx. - Galveston Bay

Some composting heads are huge. They're the ones that try to boil off the liquid components of waste. Reviews aren't all that great, even for a backwoods cabin, and they need a major power draw. This thing, which simply separates pee from poop, is not at all large; no special platform needed to climb onto. It's rather narrow, no wider than the seat, and a comfortable and familiar height, just like home. I would post photos, but never have figured out how to get anything but a link. SO, google "C-head" for its actual measurements. One advantage, besides the overall size, seems to be that it uses a standard 1 gallon jug, like bottled water or screw-cap milk jug, to hold urine, not a $40 extra bottle. This will likely need to be emptied every day or two, either behind the nearest azalea bushes, into a shore-side toilet, or (...look both ways over shoulders...) dumped over the side. Or capped and stored until a legal opportunity for disposal presents itself. The containers are readily available, of course. Never have understood why it's legal for His Lordship to pee directly over the lee rail, but woe betide his wife if she should dump the sterile contents of the jug while at anchor miles from anybody but the factory hog farms just upstream. We shall see what works best. The head holds a week or two's worth of solid waste and peat or fiber, which is eventually transferred to a larger container for further composting. The head comes with a ventilating lid to go on a five-gallon bucket. This holds several weeks' worth of used solid waste and its dry peat/coconut fiber/sawdust. When it's full, it can be capped with a locking lid and discarded in a dumpster, or emptied onto its own shoreside compost pile until it's fully broken down to a homogenous dark crumbly mix, ready to mulch the ornamental shrubbery, or add to the boat's handsome hanging baskets. The whole thing costs $500, and the man who sold it was a delight to deal with.

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Amelia
Edenton, NC

How are you trying to post photos Amelia? I put mine in photobucket then when I want to post one I simply copy the "img" text under the picture and post that here. Works every time, just don't try to edit it or it gets screwed up.

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Willie
She's a tired old barge but she's paid for! http://s71.photobucket.com/alb...p;current=ef324993.pbw

we looked at a composting head at the boat show 2 years ago in louisville. i could not bring myself to do it after he explained the operation. we ended up with a johnson pump aqua-t quiet flush head and love it.let us know how it works out for you amelia.by the way, we've been boating for years and most of them with houseboats. i've never had a roach on any boat. i was really amazed at the posts. is this a big problem for everyone? i asked around here and no one else around here has ever had any problems.

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1991 gibson 44 executive
454's
norwich,ohio
docked on the good ole ohio river in marietta

Edited: 05/27/2012 at 06:15:57 AM by 42gibson

No roaches, ever? Well, of course not. Y'all livin' in Ohio, Honey. There IS one advantage to that climate! (This Southern belle served 20 years of hard time in NE Ohio... very good people, very pleasant rural scenery, ...and utterly foul weather.) Sometime y'all got to spend some time on the beautiful Gulf coast, where the 2.5" long "Palmetto Bugs", massive black cockroaches that fly, will, shall we say, make a memorable impression, and shameless opportunists that they are, they'll find their way into even the cleanest and best-sealed houses. Some things about 'back home' I really don't miss at all!

And we shall see how gross the composting head idea turns out to be. Chac'un a son gout, or something like that. I couldn't get excited about holding tanks.

Willie, I'll give the photo posting another try when we get back in a few weeks. Our upcoming adventure is a trip by too-small airplane from sea to shining sea. What better excuse to go flying than to receive an invitation to the chic-est wedding of the decade, out on the Left coast. With whatever size shampoo bottle I care to tote. Thwap. Take THAT, TSA!!

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Amelia
Edenton, NC